Recruiting Young Republicans and Off to the Sex Club...

There was quite a bit of talk yesterday concerning the RNC's interesting expense account... Obviously spending the money people donate to the Republican National Committee on a night out at an expensive Hollywood bondage and lesbian themed sex club was not exactly what the donors would hope for, never mind the $17,000 on private jets and the other booze as well...

But relax folks! It is just the good old fashioned way that Republican leadership wants to help raise your kids:

One California blog, Red County, reports that Brown isn't the staffer. Instead, they say, Brown paid the bill (and submitted it to the RNC as an expense) after a staffer's credit card was declined, according to anonymous sources.


The blog also reports that the excursion took place after a recruiting event for the RNC Young Eagles at the Beverly Hills hotel.

This makes it all OK, right?

From BarbinMD:

A group of RNC "Young Eagles" were escorted to a bondage-themed nightclub by an RNC official to blow off a little steam after a rough night of partying in Beverly Hills, the RNC accidentally picked up the tab but they're getting their money back. It could happen to anyone.

Young Eagles, by the way, are the next generation of big money donors to the Republican party ... and it should be noted that the GOP defines "young" as anyone under 45, a sad little attempt to lay claim to the youth vote ... whose mission statement is to:

Define the future leaders of tomorrow by creating a vibrant base of young, conservative oriented members that can and will take an active role in shaping the party's message, as well as that of the country, well into the future.

Well, mission accomplished, Young Eagles.
 

And what lessons can we all take away from this? First, that it's a good day when you can write a headline that says, "RNC to investigate spending at bondage-themed nightclub featuring lesbian sex acts," and second, that the RNC's explanation that the brain trust in their financial department accidentally paid out $2000 for a night out for the "boys" at a strip club isn't going to inspire their donors. That they had to put out a statement assuring those donors that Michael Steele doesn't go to bondage-themed strip clubs was just a bonus.

Banks - Breaking up is hard to do:

Via the LA Times:

Britain is forcing breakups of bailed-out major banks

The British government -- spurred on by European regulators -- is forcing Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock to sell off parts of their operations. The Europeans are calling for more and smaller banks to increase competition and eliminate the threat posed by banks so large that they must be rescued by taxpayers, no matter how they conducted their business, in order to avoid damaging the global financial system.

The move to downsize some of Britain's largest banks comes as U.S. politicians are debating whether American banks should also be required to shrink. The Obama administration has maintained that large banks should be preserved because they play an important role in the economy and that taxpayers instead should be protected by creating a new system for liquidating large banks that run into problems. But Britain's decision already is being cited by a growing chorus of experts, including prominent bankers and economists, who want the United States to pursue a similar approach.

"We still need to see exactly which parts the [British] banks will need to sell off to judge whether the goal of having smaller banks is really achieved," said Richard Portes, an economics professor at the London Business School. "But there are lessons here for the United States. The supposed economies of scale of massive financial institutions are outweighed by the difficulties in controlling risk inside them."

Hopefully the US will follow suit but I don't expect that since the big banks that failed here still managed to hold on to their biggest asset: The US government.

First UBS Client Goes Down: Rubinstein

According to the NY Times, the first of UBS' tax evading client list is being charged:

The client, Steven Michael Rubinstein, an accountant, was arrested in Boca Raton, Fla., and charged with one criminal count of filing a false and fraudulent tax return, according to court papers unsealed on Thursday.

The arrest is the first of a major American client of UBS, which has been under criminal investigation for helping scores of wealthy Americans evade taxes through secret offshore accounts that went unreported to the Internal Revenue Service. It signals that federal authorities are making good on a promise to pursue American clients suspected of tax evasion, and in some cases to make indictments.

The money hidden away for him by UBS? Around $6,000,000.00.

Mr. Rubinstein had an account with UBS worth at least $6 million, including stock and gold coins worth $2 million, according to court papers filed in Federal District Court in Fort Lauderdale. He holds both United States and South African passports.

The gold coinage were South African Krugerrands.

There only about 19,000 more tax delinquents to go.

Meanwhile, never forget that Phil Gramm was on the receiving end of an orchestrated McCain campaign Friday Night Dump during the elections because of his lobbying and working directly for UBS.

Lobbyists Can Cry Me A River

From Think Progress:

Last Friday, the Obama administration released a directive stating that lobbyists “cannot meet or speak with executive branch officials regarding specific stimulus projects or applications.” The head of the American League of Lobbyists is now saying the rule “smacks of segregation, discrimination” and is vowing to “push back” against the rule. The group is keeping “all options open, including litigation.”

After the way they have lobbied politicians for legislation that tore the economy down... All I can say is that they should get out in this great job market they helped create and find some honest work.

Everything you need to know about the bailouts...

in 2 short paragraphs. A relatively long post for Atrios. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

What's The Goal?

Others have made this point in various ways, but if the goal is to bail out the banksters and keep the existing too big to fail financial order in place with the same cast of characters in charge, then all of this sounds like a cunning plan.

If the goal was really to get banks lending again they'd be funneling large sums of money to healthy (mostly smaller) financial institutions who actually made sensible choices over the last few years.

Meanwhile a fire sale is going on:

Lenders have become so overwhelmed by the foreclosure crisis that they are starting to unload properties in bulk to investor groups at steep discounts.

Investors then flip the properties for a profit without necessarily improving the home.

For example, a unit of Citigroup, the troubled financial giant, sold a foreclosure in Temecula to an Arizona investment firm for $139,000 when comparable homes in the area were selling for $240,000 to $260,000.

The firm listed the home for $249,000, received multiple offers and the property has entered escrow, said Amber Schlieder, the real estate agent who handled the listing.

Citigroup left a 100 grand on the table. This looks like a great way to abuse the taxpayer even more.

I want to know who they are all selling in bulk to.

Remember who else was buying up the mortgages in bulk?

So it may come as a surprise that a dozen former top Countrywide executives now stand to make millions from the home mortgage mess.

Stanford L. Kurland, Countrywide's former president, and his team have been buying up delinquent home mortgages that the government took over from other failed banks, sometimes for pennies on the dollar. They get a piece of what they can collect.

"It has been very successful - very strong," John Lawrence, the company's head of loan servicing, told Mr. Kurland one recent morning in a glass-walled boardroom here at PennyMac's spacious headquarters, opened last year in the same Los Angeles suburb where Countrywide once flourished.

The Treasury has shown a willingness to recklessly toss all of our futures away to keep these "Too Big Failures" operating in their self-entitled comfort zone.

What incentive do the banks have to sell these properties for as much as they can when they can sell them in bulk at a loss to their buddies' companies (or even their own companies) so they can turn a profit on them and doing this knowing the failure bankers can ship off all of the bills for the losses to us? Think about it.

If Geithner were handing these trillions to the smaller more responsible bankers some of us little people would be able to buy these cheap houses...

But this way the elite get to keep all of the assets in their greedy hands and have us pay for their gambling addiction failures too. And then they will turn a profit on selling us these properties AGAIN.

“While some critics are distressed that Mr. Kurland and his team are back in business, the executives say that PennyMac’s operations serve as a model for how the government, working with banks, can help stabilize the housing market and lead the nation out of the recession. “It is very important to the entire team here to be part of a solution,” Mr. Kurland said

Important for Whom? You, maybe, but not me.

I am thinking predatory lenders should already be in jail and that this is a model for more financial disaster for taxpayers. I smell smoke and all I see is a fire and a bunch of greedy arsonists standing around with their gasoline soaked hands in our pockets...

And, so far, the elite are achieving their goal of bailing out themselves with our money.

From buhdydharma at dKos, some extra food for thought:

Hard Not To Call It Evil

According to people who should know, The Ruling Class is using our money....draining our money, the money we use to survive and feed our children and to actual produce things, to rescue the very structure...that allows them to BE The Ruling Class. The structures that enable them to Rule us by controlling credit, capital, and our pensions and IRA's and 401k's.

And our regulatory agencies and politicians. And so by extension our military. Which is then used in the service and interests of The Ruling Class and their Party of Business, the GOP.

These people, the Ruling Class, are the ones who got us into this financial armageddon. These are the same Ruling Class that took us to war in Iraq, after ignoring the warnings that an attack was coming.

They are the same people who made America into a nation that tortures people they KNOW to be innocent. They are the same people...if they even deserve the name...who are stopping any serious efforts to mitigate a Climate Crisis of incomprehensible scope.

They are the same people that so unprecedentedly had the Supreme Court decide Bush vs. Gore, so they could have Bush cut their taxes and deregulate the very same structures that we are now being called to give OUR money to prop up. Yes, the very same people who are directly responsible for everything that has gone wrong in our world, are the people who are now telling us....not asking us....telling us, that we have to bail them out. While as always, not telling us the whole story, not telling us what they are doing behind the scenes and behind our backs.

Read on...

[update] Via Newsweek, Follow the Bailout Cash:

In recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, the political action committee for Bank of America (which got $15 billion in bailout money) sent out $24,500 in the first two months of 2009, including $1,500 to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and another $15,000 to members of the House and Senate banking panels. Citigroup ($25 billion) dished out $29,620, including $2,500 to House GOP Whip Eric Cantor, who also got $10,000 from UBS which, while not a TARP recipient, got $5 billion in bailout funds as an AIG "counterparty." "This certainly appears to be a case of TARP funds being recycled into campaign contributions," says Brett Kappell, a D.C. lawyer who tracks donations.

[update deux] Via Tengrain, a picture is worth trillions of dollars:

The Bailout Tracker

Hat tip to Scissorhead LiberalDemDave, he discovered a handy way to find out how much the freakin’ bloodsuckers are getting out of us.

What’s really interesting is that this program also tells you the company’s market value and the percentage of the funds it received in proportion to the market value.

So, for instance, the market value of AIG is $942 million, and the bailout that they have received is 4246% of their market value. And if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know…

Note to Mayor Daley:

Why not privatize every job at city hall too? That way corporations that we all trust so much can cut out the lobbyists and middlemen and just write AND pass all of the laws so we can move even faster towards more bigger and better disaster capitalism.

And the added bonus: You can set up a bonus system for these Blackwater types to help fill the privatized prison systems. That way they can really kick the free market into high gear all by themselves. But then we'll need to privatize the courts because not all of them are as attuned to the needs of these privatized government services as Pennsylvania courts are.

Or we can just send all of these people that want "private armies" running their city to Iraq and they can write back telling us all about how they love this idea to death.

As the city and its police union near the two-year mark in contract negotiations, Mayor Richard Daley on Saturday said a proposal to allow private security guards to write tickets is worth exploring.

Only Chicago police officers can issue citations, but two far South Side aldermen want armed security guards who patrol business districts in their wards to have that authority as well.

Daley said allowing the guards to ticket people for graffiti, parking violations and other minor infractions could free trained police officers to concentrate on combating violent crime. The move could also generate revenue for the city while enforcing minor ordinances.

The Big Congressional Lie

If the United Auto Workers (UAW) union contracts can be on the table... So can the Financially United Corporate Kleptocracy of the United States (FUCK-US) nonunion contracts:

A friend called last night, and asked me why Congress didn't include anything in the bailout legislation to ensure that any company receiving a bailout didn't pay out bonuses? If the courts would have required the contracts to go through, then amend whatever law the courts are relying on to make that ruling, specifically as it applies to companies that accept bailout monies and the enforcement of bonuses. In essence, pass "cram down" legislation that applies to bonuses at companies like AIG.

These failed bankers need to be hammered. Not pampered by their elected kissing cousins. They were the ones that caused all of this in the first place. I think we need to put Congress' contracts back on the table, as well, so we can clawback their health care and heaping shitpile of their money. And then we could put an idiocracy tax on all of their incomes.

I may be furious at Dodd

for his position on health care, and Countrywide, and the credit card indentured servant act, etc., BUT it appears he may have done something right here.

Credit where credit is due, Senator Dodd, and all of that.

As for a brain drain at these insolvent banks? If those idiots in the "top leadership" leave... Then they are even dumber than the complete and utter failure of the banks they lead into destruction proved they were.

IOW: Please, Mr. and Mrs. Corporate Welfare Banker, leave and don't let the doors on the bank vaults you looted hit you on the ass on yer way out!

Is Gregg Just a Chicken?

When Gregg took the job he said that he would have supported the stimulus package but would not vote on it. Will he tuck tail and run from that position too?

Time for Gregg to own up to what he said.

Will Gregg chicken out when he has to face the ironic ridicule and egging on of the equally ridiculous wingnuts. What would you expect from anyone in the GOP? Seriously? Their track record says they will refuse to take responsibility for their votes, actions and statements even after the majority of voters have tossed them out of office for their blatant incompetence and brazened corruption. Can you think of any reason for Gregg to be any different? Now.

Also, the fact that Gregg now says he will not be running for office again tells me...

Time to wait for the scandal.

Any "bankers/gambling addicts" willing to set the odds on that for the credit derivatives market?

[update] The waiting may be over.

Judd Gregg has a Jack Abramoff problem.

At the very least, Abramoff and his team had easy access to Gregg’s Senate staff and were able to use that access to help their clients by stopping unfavorable legislation while getting earmarks and favorable legislation passed into law.

As it stands right now, Gregg’s best defense is that he is a terrible manager and that "bad apples" joined his staff, went "rogue" and traded favors in his name. And to be fair, Gregg may be that dense. After all, look at the sloppy and moronic way he withdrew himself from consideration as Obama’s Commerce Secretary: it was not the actions of a competent man. On the other hand, it was the actions of a man distracted other things. Gregg strikes me as a nervous man deeply worried about another shoe dropping.

Perhaps he is clean of scandal, but I suspect that Gregg had a fair understanding of what his staffers were doing in his name. After all, Kevin Koonce is not the only link between Senator Judd Gregg and Jack Abramoff.

Like most Republicans since 2005, Judd Gregg denies that he ever knew or had anything to do with Jack Abramoff. The money he returned from Abramoff’s clients was just a coincidence. In fact—to hear Gregg or one of his fellow Republicans explain it—any of the growing list of links between Abramoff and Gregg or Abramoff and the Republican Party are just random points of unrelated data. Yeah, right.

They are tap dancing in the graveyard.

Perhaps it was Jack Abramoff who best explained why this line of BS is so hard to believe when he told Vanity Fair in 2006:

"Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn’t know me is almost certainly lying," he says. Such lies are not just, well, lies, but dumb to boot, he adds, for, as his own humiliations suggest, old e-mails never die; they just sit on hard drives, waiting to be subpoenaed and then to be leaked to the press. "This is not an age when you can run away from facts," he declares. "I had to deal with my records, and others will have to deal with theirs."

It is looking like Judd Gregg will have to deal with his Abramoff record. Perhaps this is why he withdrew as the Commerce Secretary and why he has decided to retire from the Senate at the end of this term.

A Weekend at Bernie's

The Associated Press reports on what Bernard Madhoff has been up to and what the prosecutors want to do about it:

US govt to NY judge: Jail Madoff without bail

Prosecutors on Monday said disgraced financier Bernard Madoff violated bail conditions by mailing about $1 million worth of jewelry and other assets to relatives and should be jailed without bail.

"The defendant's recent actions amount to obstruction of justice," Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt told a judge at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan.

Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, described the items as heirlooms that included cufflinks and antique watches. He said they were not significant assets. The items were sent to Madoff's children and to unidentified friends vacationing in Florida.

Not only should this cretin be jailed ASAP for violating bail, they may as well just throw away the key.

Open and Shut Case at Window and Door Factory

Or is that a Shut and Open Case in a very real class war?

A company managed by the wife of Republic Windows and Doors owner Richard Gillman recently purchased an Iowa plant that manufactures similar products, according to public records.

Gillman has come under fire in recent days for abruptly closing Republic's Goose Island plant and refusing to provide workers there with the 60 days notice and pay required by federal labor law.

Echo Windows and Doors was created two weeks ago and lists Sharon Gillman as its manager, according copies of records obtained by the Daily News from the Iowa Secretary of the State. According to Cook County property tax records, Sharon Gillman is Richard Gillman's wife.

The couple purchased a $2.6 million Oak Street condo together in 2007, according to property records.

This is emblematic of the heartwarming story of lifestyles of the rich and blameless:

The Los Angeles Times covers the story through the lens of the disconnect between Main Street and Wall Street:

Here, in this corner of the recession, the standoff between the workers and Bank of America has quickly evolved into a symbol of the divide between the financial rescue plans for Wall Street and Main Street.

and:

When they heard the news, some workers were furious. Others cried. Rangel panicked. His wife had been sick for weeks and had recently seen the family physician.

"I got a call from the doctors. The insurance company said they won't pay because the company canceled all our policies and didn't tell us," Rangel said. "I have a mortgage. I have a child. What do we do if he gets sick?"

While it wouldn't resolve the unethical behavior of people that run businesses in the same way as people like the Gillmans, single payer universal health care would help mitigate some of the inhumanity of it.

[update] In comment, from RBA at ePluribus Media:

So it turns out BofA may have been right in the first place: it's Republic's problem. Even so, BoA is 'extending credit' to Republic for the employees. 'Journamalism'. Gotta love it. Another story that got phoned in without deep background on the principals.

Get the feeling that BoA's new found interest in extending credit lies in a mix of CYA with the PR and wanting to be able to reason continuing business with the Gillmans and Ecko in Iowa? (Just taking a guess there...)

If it simply came down to the PR aspect I can't see them doing it. There has to be more of a profit motive behind it, IMHO. And YES! I am cynical. lol

Economy Derails and McCain says: Slime Obama!

Via Steven D at The Booman Tribune:

DOW Jones Industrial Index down nearly more than 300 400 500 points since the opening bell. NYSE Trading would be suspended one hour if there is an 1100 point decline in the DJIA before 2:00 pm today under current NYSE rules.

And $600 Billion Dollars of US assets frozen in UK bankruptcy involving Lehman Brothers.

In Europe and Asia markets are going nuts too.

And all McCain wants to do, via BooMan, is point to stupid GOP talking points about Barack Obama.

McCain's announced plan was to make every attempt to shift the focus of the campaign off of the economy and onto Barack Obama. In particular, McCain wanted to use a kind of Kevin Bacon seven-degrees-of-separation argument to tie Obama to the dubious activities of people for which Obama bears no responsibility. It was a weak strategy to begin with, but a tumbling stock market will make it impossible. Perhaps even more troublesome for McCain is the fact the Obama campaign has launched a major media campaign to re-raise and educate the public about the Keating 5 scandal.

Don't look at the economy that is running off the tracks and "ssshhhh! about all that Keating 5 stuff":

John "Keating 5" McCain can color me surprised...

I never noticed...

Bill Maher's "New Rule" asking people not to think the worst about John McCain just because he is white:

Now, take a look at these pictures. Here are the CEOs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and the Lehman Brothers. I know the first thing that jumps out about these faces is that they all happen to be white, and they all happen to be responsible for stealing. But what you have to understand is that these whites are a product of a society that made them that way. It was the neighborhoods and the schools they went to: Harvard, Yale, the Wharton School of Business. They never learned the value of doing real, actual work and the first step to fixing that is better role models, so kids growing up white today don’t think the only way out of Westchester is corporate crime. Or a government handout or sailing. So I get it, the temptation is to look at McCain and vote against him because you don’t see an individual, you just see another typical welfare whitey.

And it’s true, he’s spent his entire life shuffling from one low-paying government job to another. Well, except those years he spent in prison. Typical! And between you and me, he’s not very articulate. Oh, he may have some street smarts, but he’s not what you call an educated man. He freely admits he’s ignorant about the economy. And apparently the only thing his white running mate knows how to do is crank out one baby after another. And now of course, her teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. Because she learns it at home! But that doesn’t mean we should assume all white people are like that, just because so many of them are.

C&L has the video

It's not like John Keating 5 McCain should ever be damned for this kind of stuff just because he is white. McCain should be damned for this kind of stuff because he is in the GOP.

A little more on John "Keating 5" McCain:

During the 2000 Republican Presidential Primaries, Slate.com writer Chris Suellentrop wrote an excellent in-depth feature article about John McCain and his role in the Keating Five. This is a must read article for every American, especially for anyone who thinks John McCainis a hero.

Two Important things to know before you read the article:

1. John McCain admitted to intentionally filing false income tax returns to defraud the IRS by not claiming thousands of dollars in gifts McCain and his family received from Charles Keating and Keating’s company. Years later, when the IRS noticed Keating’s company had written off the gifts to McCain as business expenses, McCain fessed up and admitted filing false returns and made a “donation” to the U.S. Treasury to cover the amount he defrauded American tax payers. (Committing tax fraud is one of the least offensive things John McCain has done over his career, but this article just focuses on his role in the Keating Five, and the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal of the late 1980’s-early 1990’s). McCain also leaked information about the Keating Five to the press multiple times in an effort to appear above the other Senators in the scandal. A 1989 Phoenix New Times article summed it up best with their title - McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five.

2. John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, along with her father, made a $359,000 investment in retail property owned by Charles Keating in 1986, a year before John McCain first met with federal regulators on behalf of Keating. Keating was later convicted on 73 counts of fraud, conspiracy, and other crimes. Years later, Cindy McCain sold her investment for $15,000,000.

For anyone not aware of the Keating Five, here’s a very simple summary.

Because some in the media don't want you to know about the Keating 5... It is just a little bit too maverICKY all over again.

Meanwhile, Sarah Winky Palin is out there screeching that "this election is all about a guy who did bad things when Obama was 8 years old, dontcha know?":

Sarah Palin recently accused Obama of palling around with terrorists. This is funny because she has her own radical extremist connections that could be construed as terrorists as well. Palin accused Obama of seeing America as so imperfect, that he was pallin around with a terrorist. Funny enough Palin for years was pallin around with a group of Alaskan radicals that saw America as imperfect enough that they wanted to secede from the union.

While Obama knew Ayers years after he had reformed and began making an honest contribution to society, Palin was a member and or strongly affiliated with a radical Alaskan secessionist party whose founder died in plastic explosives deal gone bad. Her husband was definitly a member from 1995-2002 according to voting records. While is is questionable to call them terrorists, they were definitely radical secessionists who did not fall in line with the Republican credo of ‘loving America’ or McCain’s slogan ‘Country First’.

If you want a really good idea of about what Sarah Palin's connections to the secessionist group AKIP are, that article at Blackplanet goes on to interview AKIP leadership to try and get to the bottom of it.

Meanwhile, while many have known about the radical Mark Chryson's - Sarah Palin's friend of 15 years - ties to AKIP, what many people miss is that Mark Chryson appears to be a batshit loopy bigoted Nazi sympathizing holocaust denying type.

Here are some of the web sites Sarah Palin's Mark Chryson hosts on his own personal web pages, and this is some weird, scary and wacky stuff:

Okay, it appears that web-ak.com is a webhosting company that is owned by this friend of Palin's. I went to this site and had a look around. Under the links page, we find something called the "Waco Holocaust Museum". Now, note that this is on the links page and is hosted on the same domain. In fact, it appears to be the only thing on the links page on the same domain. At the bottom of this Waco page, there are more links, a big list of them at the bottom. Half the links don't work (archive.org anyone?), but the ones that do work include:

"Seventh Seal" An 'apolitical' history of the Axis (Nazis).

"The Confederate Memorial Association"

"Brasscheck" Appears to be a 9/11 truther site.

"Real History Archives" Assorted conspiracy theories.


"Brood of Vipers" More conspiracy theories.

"Final Conflict" Incoherent website about Nationalism. The page has an article "Did six million really die?"

Enjoy!

Mark Chryson is one radical, scary and wacko dude.

And Mark Chryson was friends of the Palins for 15 years - the entire time Todd Palin was a member of this radical secessionist group, AKIP - and Chryson even helped Sarah Palin take down the Alaskan GOP chairman.

Now... That is all just Secessionist Sarah Palin's ties to the far reaches of wingnuttery batshit loopyness, but not all of her ties to it...

a builder named Steven Stoll, a computer repairman named Mark Chryson, and a third man named Mike Christ. All three subscribed to a bellicose, "Patriot" movement brand of politics -- far-right libertarianism with a John Birch streak.

According to Stein, Steven Stoll -- whose local nickname, according to Phil Munger, is "Black Helicopter Steve" -- was involved in militia organizing in Wasilla the 1990s, and subscribed to most of the movement's paranoid conspiracy theories: "The rumor was that he had wrapped his guns in plastic and buried them in his yard so he could get them after the New World Order took over."

This wasn't particularly unusual in the valley at the time. Like much of the rural Northwest, survivalist worldviews often led to Patriot organizing activity and its attendant paranoia: "There were other folks who also got all worked up about the supposed Y2K thing," Stein said, recalling a home he'd looked at with a full array of bunkers and stored food supplies.

But Stoll, Mike Christ, and Mark Chryson were a special case: "They would demonstrate in front of the Wasilla Council," recalled Stein, saying that the causes varied but invariably involved an animus to "socialist" government, such as planning and public education. "This same group [Stoll, Christ, and Chryson] also challenged me on whether my wife and I were married because she had kept her maiden name. So we literally had to produce a marriage certificate. And as I recall, they said, ‘Well, you could have forged that.’ "

And they were a vocal part of Sarah Palin's base of support.

Look... These two incompetent, corrupt and failed conservatives can try to distract you from the GOP's economic legacy that is unfolding before your very eyes right now with BS about Obama as an 8 year old BUT I guarantee we will talk about what these two have done as irresponsible adults.

And the GOP better realize...

What This Election Is Really About

Barrack Obama on what this election is really about:

This financial crisis is a direct result of the greed and irresponsibility that has dominated Washington and Wall Street for years. It’s the result of speculators who gamed the system, regulators who looked the other way, and lobbyists who bought their way into our government. It’s the result of an economic philosophy that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else; a philosophy that views even the most common-sense regulations as unwise and unnecessary. Well, this crisis is nothing less than a final verdict on this failed philosophy – and it’s a philosophy I’m running for President to end.

That’s what this election is all about.

Crooks and Liars has some video up:

“I don’t know what yardstick Senator McCain uses, but where I come from, there is nothing more ‘fundamental’ than a job. The fundamentals of our economy are not strong and it’s time we had a President who understands that.” - Barack Obama

John "Keating 5" McCain can color me surprised...

I never noticed...

Bill Maher's "New Rule" asking people not to think the worst about John McCain just because he is white:

Now, take a look at these pictures. Here are the CEOs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and the Lehman Brothers. I know the first thing that jumps out about these faces is that they all happen to be white, and they all happen to be responsible for stealing. But what you have to understand is that these whites are a product of a society that made them that way. It was the neighborhoods and the schools they went to: Harvard, Yale, the Wharton School of Business. They never learned the value of doing real, actual work and the first step to fixing that is better role models, so kids growing up white today don’t think the only way out of Westchester is corporate crime. Or a government handout or sailing. So I get it, the temptation is to look at McCain and vote against him because you don’t see an individual, you just see another typical welfare whitey.

And it’s true, he’s spent his entire life shuffling from one low-paying government job to another. Well, except those years he spent in prison. Typical! And between you and me, he’s not very articulate. Oh, he may have some street smarts, but he’s not what you call an educated man. He freely admits he’s ignorant about the economy. And apparently the only thing his white running mate knows how to do is crank out one baby after another. And now of course, her teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. Because she learns it at home! But that doesn’t mean we should assume all white people are like that, just because so many of them are.

C&L has the video

It's not like John Keating 5 McCain should ever be damned for this kind of stuff just because he is white. McCain should be damned for this kind of stuff because he is in the GOP.

A little more on John "Keating 5" McCain:

During the 2000 Republican Presidential Primaries, Slate.com writer Chris Suellentrop wrote an excellent in-depth feature article about John McCain and his role in the Keating Five. This is a must read article for every American, especially for anyone who thinks John McCainis a hero.

Two Important things to know before you read the article:

1. John McCain admitted to intentionally filing false income tax returns to defraud the IRS by not claiming thousands of dollars in gifts McCain and his family received from Charles Keating and Keating’s company. Years later, when the IRS noticed Keating’s company had written off the gifts to McCain as business expenses, McCain fessed up and admitted filing false returns and made a “donation” to the U.S. Treasury to cover the amount he defrauded American tax payers. (Committing tax fraud is one of the least offensive things John McCain has done over his career, but this article just focuses on his role in the Keating Five, and the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal of the late 1980’s-early 1990’s). McCain also leaked information about the Keating Five to the press multiple times in an effort to appear above the other Senators in the scandal. A 1989 Phoenix New Times article summed it up best with their title - McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five.

2. John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, along with her father, made a $359,000 investment in retail property owned by Charles Keating in 1986, a year before John McCain first met with federal regulators on behalf of Keating. Keating was later convicted on 73 counts of fraud, conspiracy, and other crimes. Years later, Cindy McCain sold her investment for $15,000,000.

For anyone not aware of the Keating Five, here’s a very simple summary.

Because some in the media don't want you to know about the Keating 5... It is just a little bit too maverICKY all over again.

More Banks Fail and Workers Feel the Plutocratic Punch

Politics in the Zeros , one of the few Bloggers I know of that was following bank failures before it became fashionable, talks about the human side of this most recent round of bank failures involving AIG, Merrill Lynch and Lehman:

One report said employees were walking out of Lehman today (Sunday) crying, angry, dazed, their jobs and retirement funds vaporized. Would it be that only the fat cats got singed when capitalism has a crisis. But that’s not what happens. Lehman employs janitors, cooks, secretaries, clerks, etc. too.

I’ve been making it a point to post on financial blogs (as well as here) when someone screams that what’s happening is socialism that, no it’s not, it’s plutocracy.

Bob is 100% correct here. This country has gone well beyond normal and healthy capitalism and is now a Plutocratic state. This really isn't any form of socialism. But try explaining that to the average American that has been spoon fed in sound bytes of "liberal," "conservative," "socialism" and "communism." And never mind the fact that they are starved of the big (you could even insert that nasty Global word here!) economic picture by the traditional media because that American story would not be pretty at all.

Unless you live in the top 1% income earners in this nation (maybe even top 5%?) you are living in a completely different world than the people that live in the "richest nation in the world" that some conservatives howl about in lockstep at any mention of the American economic realities.

For the employees this will probably be like Enron all over again - with or without scandals and fraud. All of the workers, the little people, will get shafted but the “fat cats” will jump golden parachutes and all intact.

In cases like these, what is Plutocracy if it isn’t socialism for the rich?

Corporate and Wall Street welfare queens with their limousine lobbyists driving up to get their government handouts.

I know it is framing, and a bit dishonest at that. But it makes a point that Joe and Suzy Sixpack can understand. Everything else goes in one ear and out the other.

Unfortunately, most Americans don’t have a clue as to the meaning of Plutocracy, nor would they ever admit to its existence here if they even cared - "FREEDUMB!" - and some in the conservative spectrum would gladly accept it as long as the Plutocracy were Theocratic in its leanings.

In an honest and open free market - one of the other things conservatives howl about in lockstep whenever it is convenient to their arguments - these failed banks would be left to go under and the fat cats would suffer as well as the little people. And the government wouldn't even be thinking about bailing them out at all. But they will...

And all it is going to accomplish is reward the failure of the corporate elite and punish the taxpayer. Where is the incentive be a fiscally responsible corporation in America today? There is none.

Too many of these corporations have gotten so big in this (insert that nasty Global word again!) economy they can demand the right to be failures. A right for corporate "personhoods" that the average American person - you know? Living, breathing human beings - will never have.

Welcome to Plutocratic America...

In somewhat related news:

• 1. Wall Street banks falter Andrew Sorkin, NY Times
• 2. Bank meltdown wallops campaigns Mike Allen, Politico
• 3. McCain supports Bush's economic policies Jonathan Cohn, TNR
• 4. Treasury will have to protect the banks Editorial, WSJ
• 5. Blame Treasury Secretary Paulson Paul Krugman, NY Times
• 6. To win, stop attacking Palin Clive Crook, FT
• 7. McCain's press bashing is cynical Al Hunt, Bloomberg
• 8. Wal-Mart moms may be the key John Heilemann, NY Magazine
• 9. Insiders are best at reform Norm Ornstein, Washington Post
• 10. GOP victimized by elites Greg Rodriguez, LA Times

Stories number 9 and 10 have got to be a joke?

[update] A few more links and commentary via Think Progress:

Markets sank in Europe and Asia today, stock index futures slipped sharply on Wall Street, and the dollar plunged as two giant investment banks, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, collapsed over the weekend. Compounding the financial uncertainty, insurance giant A.I.G. “sought a $40 billion lifeline from the Federal Reserve, without which the company may have only days to survive.”

Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. credit squeeze has brought on a “once-in-a-century” financial crisis that is likely to claim more big firms before it eases. “Indeed, it will continue to be a corrosive force until the price of homes in the United States stabilizes,” Greenspan said.

Once in a century, Mr. Greenspan? Last century it was called The Great Depression...

[update deux] It appears that both bush and McCain are in Florida today. McCain is there denying the true scope of the economic collapse:

Speaking in Florida this morning — the very day that two of Wall Street’s major banking institutions collapsed — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) declared he “still” believes “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” Watch it:

John McCain is a documented and fact-checked liar... McCain is also a self professed idiot when it comes to the economy. And I wonder if McCain was scheduled to show up at the same Florida fund raiser as bush was?

In other Florida news:

The location of a Bush fundraising event in Florida has been changed after event planners realized that the original host is under an IRS investigation. The event was originally scheduled to be at the home of John Boswell, whose Boswell House Ministries is undergoing an IRS probe.

[update trois] Crooks and Liars notes that this is a chance for Obama to take back the news cycle and focus it squarely on one of the big issues of today:

The financial markets are collapsing and it’s because of conservatism. McCain’s policies are the same as Bush and when McCain says that he is a reformer has no bearing on fixing the failing financials. Republicans do not want regulations. Period. McCain will not fundamentally change anything regarding our economy.

Obama’s camp:

Today of all days, John McCain’s stubborn insistence that the ‘fundamentals of the economy are strong’ shows that he is disturbingly out of touch with what’s going in the lives of ordinary Americans. Even as his own ads try to convince him that the economy is in crisis, apparently his 26 years in Washington have left him incapable of understanding that the policies he supports have created an historic economic crisis,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

They need to immediately produce a series of ads attacking McCain on conservatism and that puts the blame squarely on his shoulders for this latest Wall St. meltdown.

It's the economy, stupid! A freakin' no brainer that anyone with dwindling purchasing power (about 95 to 99% of America) can understand.

Palin Speech Canceled - Will she be dumped?

The McCain campaign provides what I believe to be spin on what may be a necessary reaction to the complete failure of John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate:

Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly lashed out Tuesday at the McCain campaign after it suddenly canceled an appearance by vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at an event sponsored by Schlafly’s Republican National Coalition for Life.

Palin was to receive the “Life of the Party” award and deliver the keynote speech at the event this afternoon, but the McCain campaign canceled her appearance, citing the need for her to prepare for Wednesday night’s speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Schlafly said.

“I think this is clearly somebody in the McCain campaign who doesn’t understand where the votes are coming from,” Schlafly told ABC News.

Given the number of scandals that are breaking on Palin, new scandals nearly by the hour since McCain picked Palin without properly vetting her, I think that Bob and others may be speaking the truth here:

The Sarah Palin Death Watch

It's getting worse for Ms. Palin every day. The MSM has picked up the loose threads of her various issues, and they're digging hard. How long before she either a) withdraws because of "family issues", or b) is unceremoniously dumped by McCain and the GOP?

I was giving odds (3-1 at last estimate) but a metaphorical death watch seems more appropriate. It's not whether it's going to happen, but when? I say 9/7/08 is going to be the day.

Over on FDL they've started a "Sarah Palin Goodbye Watch", but really, shouldn't it be called a figurative "death watch"? Because her political ambitions are going to expire well before their time (which would have been November 4th anyway).

A lot of the scandals have yet to be fully absorbed in the mainstream media and feed into the public eye-line, considering not everyone is a news and policy junkie Blogger in America, but the media is catching up and a lot of the stuff is going to be in your face from the traditional media newspaper sources as well as in the supermarket magazine racks:


The article inside is as scathing as the cover stories promise, though it won't include the more recent scandals and updates on the old ones.

On January 15, Alaska governor Sarah Palin laughed along with an Alaskan shock-jock DJ who called her political rival Lyda Green a "cancer," a "bitch" and ridiculed her weight. (Green is a cancer survivor.)

"People were so nice and were motified. Newspapers that were never Lyda Green-friendly, they demanded that [Sarah] apologize," Green told Us.

"You know what she said? She said, 'I'm calling to apologize. I hope you didn't misunderstand the radio program,'" Green says. "I told her, 'I didn't misunderstand.'"

The Alaska state senator added, "It's not a good way to behave. Why would anybody call a shock jock?"

So what did Green think when she heard Palin was John McCain's vice presidential candidate? "It's been very difficult to work with her," she tells Us Weekly. "I wish there had been more vetting."

Monday, Palin released a statement confirming that her daughter Bristol, 17, was five-months pregnant.

Mom-of-five Palin is antiabortion (even in cases of rape) and opposed to sex-education classes (she believes in abstinence instruction for teens).

The latest scandal du jour on Palin exemplifies the kind of bush failure that the eratic John McCain has further embraced as his own in his pick of the deeply scandalized Palin:

Mat Maid in brief:

Palin fired the whole state Agriculture and Conservation board in July 2007, ostensibly to save a mismanaged state-owned dairy, and replaced it with her usual gang of cronies.

As a result, the dairy lost more money than it had in twenty years.

The dairy, an Alaska icon, closed anyway in two months, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional state money with it.

Millions of dollars in dairy equipment ended up, at a steep discount, in the hands of a local Palin ally, who now runs a remarkably similar operation with the help of a Ted Stevens earmark.

Want to learn more? Please read on - I've reworked my entry somewhat for clarity and added some new information.

...snip...

Once the new Board was seated and the death sentence on Mat Maid lifted, Palin immediately authorized paying out the $600,000 state grant to Mat Maid the prior board had refused. The money disappeared into the corporation’s general funds, where it was used to fund operations. Payments to Wasilla-area dairy farmers continued uninterrupted, even as other bills piled up. In fact,the Board raised the price of milk Mat Maid paid to dairy farmers, only making Mat Maid’s economic predicament worse, but shifting even more taxpayer dollars into the pockets of the well-connected.

Of course, this naked income redistribution - from hard-strapped Alaska taxpayers to well-connected dairy farmers - needed camouflaging. So the new Board spent several months, and tens of thousand of dollars, investigating the prior Board’s behavior, hiring an accounting firm (Mikunda, Cottrell and Company) to review the financial records of Mat Maid in search of the classic mismanagement trinity: waste, fraud and abuse. No significant improprieties were ever found.

Which, of course, only adds to Palin's clear ties to the eternally corrupt Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens - a prime candidate for the Corrupt Bastads Club - and further exposes her abusive mismanagement skills while rewarding her own cronies.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state's political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Palin's name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors.

Sarah Palin tried to build an image as some kind of "reformer" in Alaskan politics. But it is proving that she did so simply for the reason that it allowed her to push many in the previous "old boys network" out of the way in order to install her own network of cronies and profiteers. She eventually turned on Ted Stevens as well. But only after it became clear that Stevens was not going to escape indictment.

Given the fact that McCain represents just more of the same corrupt corporate profiteering, as evidenced by his campaign backbone being run by some of the worst examples of corporate lobbying run amok in Washington D.C., it is becoming clearer every day why John McCain went out of his way to make this clearly incompetent and irrational pick of Palin as his running mate.

Previously brewed in New Milford:

Lobbying for the Truth Behind the McCain Affairs

The truth that the GOP is trying to avoid discussing... Has nothing to do with the fact that McCain cheated repeatedly on his first wife, finally leaving her when he found a suitable stepping stone spouse for his political career. I could deal with The Real McCain's family values disgraces but I'll leave that to the ostriches in the conservative echo chamber to choke on:

According to Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief, February 1, 2008, "[John McCain] used nepotism to get ahead: When he was rejected by the National War College, he used his father's contacts with the Secretary of the Navy to make them reconsider." Skousen also notes that "McCain cheated on his first wife after she had a severe accident. He then divorced her and married his multi-millionaire mistress, whose daddy bought McCain a spot in the Congress."

It has also never been explained why the son and grandson of Navy admirals would not rise to the rank of Admiral himself. (He exited the Navy as a Captain.) Was it his numerous adulterous affairs or his violent temper? Or both?

John McCain's biographer Robert Timberg chronicles McCain's numerous sexual affairs with subordinates both when he was an Executive Officer and later Squadron Commander. Obviously, such fraternization is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

They can torture themselves over McCain's hypocrisy on that issue while burying their heads in the sand from the real issue raised in the recent NY Times article. Glen Greenwald gets straight to the heart of the very real McCain issue, the issue that the GOP is avoiding like a neoconservative plague:

In issuing a very specific, point-by-point denial of the NYT story, McCain specifically denied that he ever talked to Paxson's CEO, Lowell Paxson (or any other Paxson representative) about this matter:

No representative of Paxson or Alcalde and Fay discussed with Senator McCain the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proceeding. . . . No representative of Paxson or Alcalde and Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC regarding this proceeding.

Au contraire, my fuzzy, feathery pet neocons:

But Newsweek's Mike Isikoff today obtained (or was given) the transcripts of deposition testimony which McCain himself gave under oath several years ago in litigation over the constitutionality of McCain-Feingold. In that testimony, McCain repeatedly and unequivocally stated the opposite of what he said in this week's NYT denial: namely, that he had unquestionably spoken with Paxson himself over the pending FCC matter:

"I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue," McCain said in the Sept. 25, 2002, deposition obtained by NEWSWEEK. "He wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business. I believe that Mr. Paxson had a legitimate complaint."

While McCain said "I don't recall" if he ever directly spoke to the firm's lobbyist about the issue -- an apparent reference to Iseman, though she is not named -- "I'm sure I spoke to [Paxson]."

It's hard to imagine how there could be a clearer contradiction in McCain's statements than (a) "I'm sure I spoke to [Paxson]" and (b) "No representative of Paxson or Alcalde and Fay discussed with Senator McCain the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proceeding."

I'll let the GOP cry over whether or not he cheated on his second wife, the lobbying mistress he left his first wife for after repeatedly cheating on her, and whether or not he married her for her money and used her to further his career ambitions... Most of the left could care less about McCain's spousal issues. It is a minor issue, and trivial to a certain degree. It is all just a shield for the right to try deflect from and avoid the lobbying allegations. Never mind the hypocrisy concerning other lobbying aspects of his dubious campaign:

Set aside the issue of the nature of his relationship with Iseman, and you have the undeniable conflict of McCain, the chest-beating reformer, being so undeniably close to lobbyists. That, many have pointed out, is the real story. The man who's absurdly proclaimed that "I’m the only one the special interests don’t give any money to" is surrounded by lobbyists.

And The Washington Post, a day after it ran its own Iseman story on page one, goes with that story on today's front page under the concise headline, "The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists."

I'm not playing into John McCain's supporters hands and deflecting from the real issues of lying about unethical lobbyist connections because...

I'm Not Your Stepping Stone!

Certainly not when all John McCain has to offer is less jobs, and MORE WAR!

[update] Via MSNBC, McCain says he won't discuss his Lobbyist weaknesses any further:

"I don't have any more comment about this issue. I had a press conference yesterday morning, and I answered every question," McCain said.

"I'm moving on. I'm talking about the issues and the challenges of America and the big issues that Americans are concerned about. I addressed the issue and addressed every question that was addressed to me.

"I do not intend to discuss it further," he told reporters.

After omitting the fact that he lied at that press conference yesterday, McCain then goes on to exactly what he said he wouldn't do: Discuss it further:

"I square it one way," McCain said. "The right to represent interests or groups of Americans is a constitutional right. There are people that represent firemen, civil servants, retirees, and those people are legitimate representatives of a variety of interests in America.

WOOOHOOO! The old "Constitutionally protected" argument from a candidate that regularly ignores and tramples on The Constitution when it comes to your rights and mine. When McCain says he isn't going to talk about it anymore... He is really just praying that we will stop asking and digging on it. Good luck on that one!

[update deux] Crooks and Liars chronicles some of the lies from McCain:

So much for the Straight talk express. He’s been trying to spin the influence that Ms. Iseman had on him overall and specifically regarding the Paxson deal. McCain’s camp had this to say:

Statements from McCain’s office said Iseman met only with staff and indicated that a staff member was involved in drafting and sending the letter. Thursday’s statement went to lengths to say why McCain could not have met with Paxson.

There’s a slight problem with that. Bud Paxson basically called McCain a liar.

Broadcaster Lowell “Bud” Paxson yesterday contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson’s behalf.

Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters in 1999 to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson’s quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.

And what about Vicki Iseman, you know, the lobbyist that McCain called a “friend?”

Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, likely attended the meeting in McCain’s office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting. “Was Vicki there? Probably,” Paxson said in an interview with The Washington Post yesterday. “The woman was a professional. She was good. She could get us meetings.”

Oh yes! There's still more more lies and inconsistencies from McCain...

[update trois] Denis Horgan sums up the inconsistancies of McCain on the lobbyists well:

Snow is sunshine. The moon is Mars. What’s the difference? How is the truth relevant?

Oh, yes. We need four more years of this.

[update] Via the local Wasilla, Alaska Blogger at Mudflats, where a caption contest is suggested for this recent ly taken town picture:

Time for a caption contest! Anyone?

And No! That image isn't photoshopped... "We hold these truths to be self-evident"

Foreclosures Hitting Record Highs

As I mentioned a while back, my family already lost our home... I hope that many of these homeowners manage to avoid slipping through the cracks of this GOP created mortgage crisis:

"Nationwide, 261,255 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in May, up 48 percent from 176,137 in the same month last year and up 7 percent from April.

According to the RealtyTrac report, one in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in May, the highest number since RealtyTrac started the report in 2005 and the second-straight monthly record."

And, meanwhile, back on the corporate ranch:

"Struggling to make ends meet;
CEO pay creeps up only $280K in 2007:

As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows.

The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard
& Poor's 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4
million. That's a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006.

The 3 1/2 percent pay increase for CEOs came even as the landscape for both
workers and shareholders darkened considerably and the economy was choked by a
housing market in free fall, layoffs and soaring prices for fuel and food."

Previously brewed in New Milford:

On the Sub-Prime Crisis

Many of you already knew that we were probably losing our home in the first wave of foreclosures hitting this state and the country. I have been sort of busy the last couple of weeks with this issue and (some of) you may have noticed that my Blog has been dormant because I have been so busy.

The bad news? We have given up trying to save our home.

The good news? Unlike the many American families that are, right now, living in tent cities (from the morgtage crisis and also from hurricane Katrina) we have been fortunate enough to find a house to rent. And we will not have to move from New Milford, either. The kids are happy about that second part. They have made friends and like living here.

Finding a place to live has not been easy. Being in the first wave of foreclosures, many landlords refused to rent to us. This issue will likely resolve itself for others later on as more and more people with foreclosures and bankruptcies on their credit reports will flood the renters market. For now it is still an issue. An issue we that we kind of lucked our way around.

Lemons Meet Lemonade (Continue reading...)

The Widening Income Gap In Connecticut

Via rba at ePluribus Media:

Lisa Lambert/AP: Poor get poorer as recession threat looms: report
In Connecticut, incomes of the wealthiest 20 percent are eight times those of the poorest 20 percent, according to the report. New York has the greatest disparity, with incomes of the top 20 percent 8.7 times the bottom ones, followed by Alabama, where the top are 8.5 times the bottom.

Just when some thought the economy was getting better in Connecticut:

Only recently has Connecticut begun recovering from the downturn of six years ago, according to Douglas Hall, associate director of research for Connecticut Voices for Children, who participated in the call. By August 2007 the state gained enough jobs to make up for those lost in the last recession, he said, but now it is losing them again.

Buckle up Nutmeggers... It is going to be a rough ride.

If you are currently stuck in a foreclosure battle...

Do you think the judge should know about this:

Yesterday, the FBI disclosed that it has launched criminal investigations against 17 companies “in the fallout of the subprime mortgage collapse.” Two Justice Department officials have confirmed that Countrywide Financial is one of the companies under investigation.

Ya know... Courts might not want to be rushing to judgments in these cases. There is nothing routine about what is going across America in this mortgage crisis. The article discusses some of the problems they see:

While the bureau will not comment on the companies that are under investigation, two Justice Department officials confirmed to ABC News reports in last week's Wall Street Journal that Countrywide Financial is under investigation.

FBI and Justice Department officials declined to comment on any open cases after the recent troubles of investment bank Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan Chase bailed out earlier this week by purchasing the company.

But in an interview with the Reuters news service Tuesday, Neil Power, section chief of the FBI's Economics Crimes Unit, alluded to a possible probe, saying, "Common sense would indicate that we would look at something that big."

"The problem is that banks weren't doing their due diligence," Power said.

It would seem to me that a lack of due diligence on the part of the banks would make them more responsible for any foreclosures on people that should not have had mortgages offered to them in the first place. We expect Joe and Suzy Sixpack to be a little bit ignorant in how these things work and the risks involved but banks should bear a greater responsibility since this is their field of expertise. It seems to me that anyone being foreclosed on in these kind of situations (ARMs, balloon payment mortgages, etc.) should be looked at as somewhat of a victim to a crime.

Also being looked at are hedge funds, like Bear Sterns, and their investments and transactions surrounding all of this. There are some emails that suggest some serious problems in Bear Stern's management. It is also a seemingly ever changing investigation:

Though the list of companies under investigation has grown, one FBI official said the number of firms under investigation is "fluid," as some of them may not pan out, some of them might close and more firms could come under scrutiny as these long-ranging investigations continue.

The FBI Criminal Investigative Division currently has 1,253 mortgage fraud investigations into all types of mortgage fraud and schemes around the country, including illegal property flipping, home equity schemes and check fraud cases.

Currently in the works is some possible relief for those that are suffering under looming foreclosures:

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) are introducing legislation “aimed at stabilizing financial markets by helping as many as 2 million homeowners avoid foreclosure.” The separate bills look to give the Federal Housing Administration “a key role in helping to renegotiate distressed mortgages and would provide up to $300 billion in guarantees to new lenders.”

Hopefully this is not too little too late and - unlike handing out corporate welfare to the likes of Bank of America, Countrywide and Bear and Sterns - this will offer some real help to the American people that need it.

[update] via C&L, America is becoming a tent city nation:

Why doesn’t our media cover stories like this? They talk about the economy and mortgage crisis, but they aren’t showing the real effects of it. Instead we have to rely upon foreign news to hear about tent cities popping up in America, full of citizens that once owned their own homes.